25 years of reforms: How these honchos changed the consumer of liberalised India

Soaps Bhi Abhi Unki Taste HaiEkta Kapoor, Changing TV viewing foreverEkta Kapoor changed the way millions looked at their TV screen. Starting at 19, armed with her actor-father Jeetendra’s funds, from 1994 to 2000, she worked out of her garage and slowly started making a name for herself, producing shows like Hum Paanch and Ghar Ek Mandir. The fortunes of her company, Balaji Telefilms, changed in 2000 when she started to produce shows for Star Plus, which had been airing only English-language content. Prime-time viewing was never the same again.

Kapoor launched three daily soaps: Kyunki Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi, Kahaani Ghar Ghar Kii and Kasautii Zindagii Kay. The nation was hooked. What remains is the post-liberalisation technicolour blast of the Ekta Kapoor school of aesthetics. And it’s no longer confined to TV serials.Retail TherapistKishore Biyani, Largest retail chain for a hungry consumer marketThe country’s largest retail chain was born in a wedding hall. In 1996, Future Group CEO Kishore Biyani wanted to open a store, selling apparels under his Pantaloons brand. He stumbled upon a 10,000 sq ft marriage hall at Gariahat in Kolkata. Pantaloons was born at a time when Levi’s and Benetton were making a mark in a label-starved market.

Ramdev and Patanjali cofounder Acharya Balkrishna have maintained that they are not out to make money but to help people.

Future Group now operates over 1,300 stores covering 18.5 million sq ft of retail space across 245 cities. “We created an organisation that can decode India, its diversity, culture and heterogeneity, to understand India on its own terms,” says the 55-year-old who set the fashion for a liberalised India.

The Game-changerLalit Modi, Blue-eyed boy turned BCCI eyesoreLalit Modi was unlike any previous BCCI official. Neither a politician nor a cricketer, he was a businessman with a controversial past. And he created the Indian Premier League (IPL), a potent mix of India’s most favourite ingredients: cricket and Bollywood.

Ramdev and Patanjali cofounder Acharya Balkrishna have maintained that they are not out to make money but to help people.

The result was intoxicating. He changed the game of cricket, the fortunes of the BCCI and cricketers, and the way any sport is played in post-liberalised India. His rise was rapid — so was his fall.

Master YogaBaba Ramdev, Desi brand iconRam Krishna Yadav from small-town Haryana has revived not only yoga for the masses but also himself as a cultural meme. Thanks to his teleyogangelism, when he became part of the Anna Hazare-led India Against Corruption group, his followers wanted not only to only keep their own bodies fit but also to cure the nation’s body politic.

Then came Patanjali Ayurved. Followers turned into brand loyalists of ayurvedic and herbal products. Ramdev and Patanjali cofounder Acharya Balkrishna have maintained that they are not out to make money but to help people. Patanjali’s revenue somersaulted from Rs 450 crore in 2011-12 to Rs 2,000 crore in 2014-15 to Rs 5,000 crore in March 2016. The next pit stop is Rs 10,000 crore by March 2017. Rs 20,000 crore by 2020?

The Low-Cost High FlierGR Gopinath, Made flying within reach of thousandsGorur Ramaswamy Gopinath aka Captain Gopinath is happy these days reading head-lines about India clocking the fastest growth in local flyers in the world. Air Deccan, India’s first low-cost airline, may not have turned very profitable, but its founder Gopinath’s vision of converting a billion people into fliers has turned a reality.

He started Air Deccan in 2003, six years after he founded a helicopter service company, Deccan Aviation. “Reforms take time to percolate down. The new middle class was emerging and so were people’s aspirations. I realised it’s not a country of 1 billion hungry people, but a country of 1 billion hungry consumers,” he says.

The Be-BPO-A-Lula ManPramod Bhasin, Bringing back office to the frontWhat started out as a business unit within General Electric in 1997 spawned the BPO industry in India, which today clocks revenues to the tune of Rs 1.56-1.59 lakh crore. Pramod Bhasin, founder of Genpact, recalls that the first challenge was to convince American companies that they could trust them to do their critical work. Genpact has grown from over 19,000 employees in 2005 to over 70,000 employees in 2015.

Bhasin feels the growth of the industry has also had a profound impact on the cities as well as on their citizens, especially women, by empowering them and providing jobs to millions. “It now needs to evolve further. Many threats like machine learning and software robotics will change the type of work that needs to be done by human beings,” he says. He’ll think up something again.

Singleminded Multi-PlexerAjay Bijli, Heralded the multi-screen cinema complex experience When PVR opened its first four-screen multiplex at Saket in Delhi, Ajay Bijli and wife Selena drove around nervously to see whether people queued up or not. To their surprise, crowds thronged and the multiplex was a hit. Today, over 84 million people watch movies at 551 PVR screens across India every year.

The Bijlis owned the single-screen Priya cinema in Delhi since 1978. “If my father hadn’t decided to have one cinema, I wouldn’t have ventured into this space,” he says. Post-liberalisation, the spending power of people was increasing and they were demanding better offerings at cinemas. What served Bijli well was his motto to do one thing and do it well. Which is rather ironic, from a multiplexing guy.